Discrimination Caused My Abuse to Be Ignored

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I wrote previously about how I was discriminated against during junior high school for developing anxiety disorder - not allowed to attend field trips to exclusive colleges which all my classmates were take on, moved to classes on lower teams during 8th grade where students were taught less. There were some more things happening at that time, much more dangerous and serious things. I was being verbally and emotionally abused on a daily basis, in addition to dealing with threats from my father when he'd been drinking heavily and actions which placed my life at risk. For the longest time, I thought that the reaction I received during junior high school when continually reporting the abuse I was experiencing was simply because my school guidance counselor didn't want to be bothered doing anything about it. I know that nearing the end of my 8th grade year, she admitted she didn't believe what I was telling her and hadn't for awhile. It dawned on me today that with everything else that happened back then, ignoring my almost daily reports of abuse may have just been another part of 'punishing' me for my disability. Another form of discrimination for something I had no control over! If any 'normal' student had walked into a school counselor's office a month into the school year said that two nights before, her father had driven the wrong way down a rural highway and come within inches of hitting a semi truck head on - Children's Services and the police would've been called in a second. When I told my guidance counselor about that happened, I can't even recall getting a comment about her being glad I was okay. A similar thing happened when a boy stole $5 from me and slammed me against my locker. Rather that getting administration and the school police officer involved, I was dumped in the nurse's office until I finished shaking uncontrollably and crying, then sent back to class. Honestly, until today I never even thought there could have been a connection between the school staff (especially this school counselor) knowing I had a disability and their refusal to see that I was being abused. With the discrimination against people with disabilities, especially those with mental health disabilities, it makes perfect sense that no one believed me. I have no doubt that the guidance counselor spread the word around school that I'd been diagnosed with an anxiety disorder, though it certainly was for gossip purposes and not in order to come up with some things that would help make school easier for me. I know for sure during 8th grade I was gossiped about in the teacher's lounge and the guidance counselor was sharing information with teachers that I thought was confidential. It makes sense though. A kid is labeled 'crazy' (yes, something as simple as suffering from anxiety makes you crazy in many people's eyes), is never going to be believed. My being crazy was the easy way for my teachers to explain why I had two outfits to wear to school and no winter coat. They could shrug and say that since I had mental issues, I must've chosen to only wear two outfits to school and refused to wear a coat. Once they believed that, there was no way they would believe I spent hours each day being screamed at by my mother for so much as looking at her the wrong way, or threatened by my father for no reason when he'd had two dozen beers that night. I am starting to think that I can add this to the list of things that happened because of discrimination. Had the school staff never knew I had some mental health issues going on, they might not have ignored the multiple signs of abuse and neglect that they saw nearly every day for two years. My English teachers wouldn't have overlooked my repeated disclosures that I was being abused in writing assignments. It wasn't enough to prevent me from having the same educational opportunities that my classmates did because of my anxiety disorder, but they also used discrimination to continually keep my life at risk and make me endure years of further abuse. Had I been a student without a disability, I truly now believe I would've received help when I gave the first hint I was experiencing abuse.